Jack of Diamonds
by AvatarofHorror
Summary: Gambit muses about his cards and his "friends" and he learns about the demons that haunt even after their gone. Focus: Acolytes Gambit and Pyro in particular


**A.N.** Okay, I don't know everyone's age in X-Men so I'm saying that Gambit (Remy) and Colossus (Piotr/Peter) are in their 20s and Pyro (St. John) is in his late teens.

Also, I don't know where I got this idea from but in this fanficion Remy is John's 'Babysiter'. Magneto basicaly doesn't want Pyro to go nuts and burn something down

Jack Of Diamonds

_It was honestly amazing. Completely amazing. The saying goes "never judge a book by its cover" and I'm pretty sure it's right. You think you know someone and then you find out just how wrong you are…_

Gambit let out a loud sigh as he carefully placed another card onto the table for his game. Today was a very slow day. Three of the Acolytes were just sitting in the "living room" of Magneto's base. Their leader himself as well as his lackeys Sabertooth and Mastermind no where to be found but no one really cared about that. Because of the lack of activity Gambit was left with nothing to do. He had decided to occupy himself with playing solitaire, although his mind was wandering from the game. Only minuets into his game he lost interest and started to look around the room he was playing in. The Cajun had never had any "close" relationship with any of the other Acolytes but he thought he knew them pretty well. Colossus didn't want to work for Magneto but he was blackmailing the Russian somehow. He liked to read novels (only in Russian) and secretly treated Pyro like his little brother. Pyro (who was currently passed out from pure boredom on the couch) was a little harder to figure out. He's a little crazy and easily amused but sometimes he seems deeper then that. At least, that was Gambit's opinion.

The TV droned on in the background since John had turned it on before he had fallen asleep. Piotr ignored it as he read some book, seated in a chair and saying little more then "hm…" now and again. After placed down a few more cards in his very boring game of solitaire, Remy stood up to turn off the ranting news. When he passed the couch (he had long since assumed that the TV remote had disappeared somewhere in John's room so he had to turn off the TV with the button on the front) the mutant heard a mumble from its occupant. The noise diverted Gambit's attention from the TV to the one that had turned it on. The habitually non-stop maniac looked anything but his usual self and more like a normal person. He looked almost scared. He was sleeping on his side, facing Gambit with his back to the couch. The teen had started out sprawled out all over the sofa but by now he was curled up with his hands caught up in his shocking bright hair. He muttered again and clutched his hair tighter as he shivered. For the first time since…well, they met, St. John looked almost innocent.

By now Piotr was watching the scene, having placed his book in his lap. The sleeping Australian spoke again (two softly to be heard unless you were right next to him) but this time the older mutant caught at least some of the words. The obvious distress that his dreams were causing him made Gambit want to wake the kid (Wait…when did he go from a 'delinquent to be watched' to the much more meaningful 'kid'?). The red-eyed mutant grabbed the sleeper's shoulder and shook rather hard to wake him.

Blue eyes shot open as the kid jerked awake and kicked at the other mutant to get away. After taking a few moments to realize what was going on, the pyro relaxed and settled down on the couch sitting cross-legged. Both the twenty-some year olds were watching him which made St. John uneasy.

"What? Did I miss somethin?" He was back to his typical self, wide eyes flicking between the Russian and the Cajun.

Gambit couldn't precisely remember what happened after that (or he wanted to keep the one-of-a-kind memory to himself) but at the end of the night they were all quite tired but much more of a "team". Piotr had lit a fire in the fireplace at some point during the night as the three of them spoke on home and the nightmares they thought they had left behind. By the time they started to fall asleep everyone had shifted places a few times. Colossus had ended up on the floor facing the fireplace with his back against the sofa, John was curled up against his chest like some kind of little kid, and Gambit was finishing up his game from earlier in the evening. He flipped over his last card just as Pyro mumbled a quiet "thank you" in his sleep. Remy had to smile. His card was the Jack of Diamonds, "the laughing boy". Maybe John was more then just a "laughing boy" and took up the manic act for attention. Either way…in the end the red-eyed Cajun didn't mind playing babysitter for a little while more. Maybe…he eve liked it.


End file.
